The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has demanded for accountability and action that will see even development of the region from political office holders of the Niger Delta extraction.
This demand is coming in the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s order for a forensic audit of the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from 2001 to 2019, following persistent criticisms of the operations of the commission.
National chairman of PANDEF, Idongesit Nkanga, a retired air commodore, made this demand last week at the inauguration of the Professor Godini Darah-led Delta State chapter of the body in Warri.
The group said it would champion the call for the resignation of political office holders including ministers from the oil-rich Niger Delta region to resign if they cannot effect positive changes in the region through their offices.
While welcoming the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to undertake a forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), PANDEF insisted that the names of beneficiaries of contracts from the commission must be made known to the people of the region.
“In our last retreat, we welcomed the auditing of NDDC but we also said we want the names of those who have been beneficiaries of the contracts from 200 till date to also be mentioned.
“It is when that is done, we will realise that there are people from outside that helped to bring the Niger Delta to where it is. It is then you will know that some of the contractors who abandoned those projects are not even from the Niger Delta.
“The people of the Niger Delta must be held responsible for our plight today. So we hold the people of Niger Delta who are in positions of authority to come and relieve Niger Delta of this shame.
“Our indigenes that are there, if they cannot effect change, let them resign. Our people that are there must come out and help the Niger Delta.”
According to the PANDEF, it will no longer sit aloof to watch indigenes of the region join hands with those it described as “enemies of the region,” to continue to impoverish the people of the region from where the nation’s economic mainstay is derived.
Nkanga, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, lamented that of the 16-point that the body submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari on November 1, 2016, only one of the demand had been addressed by the All Progressives Congress-led government.
The group remains committed to achieving its 16-point demand, he said, and called on President Buhari to act on the list in the interest of the region.
Nkanga, reacting to last Wednesday’s ruling on the case between President Buhari and PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the forum congratulated the President but urged him to focus on the restructuring of the country.
“The issues that are very current for PANDEF are the 16-point agenda, the relocation of the IOCs. We want trickle down effects. The other issue we are holding onto is restructuring. After yesterday’s Supreme Court pronouncement, the reaction of Mr. President is that we have work to do.
“I believe that the huge work we have has to do with restructuring of this country. The foundation of this country is on restructuring. It was done in the first republic,” he emphasised.
In his goodwill message, convener of PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, called for the unity of the different ethnic nationalities in the region, saying it was only in that direction that the region could see rapid development.
Clark, represented by former minister of police affair, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, stated that PANDEF was established to forge unity among Niger Deltans.
“We really want peace among the ethnic nationalities. As far as Niger Delta, Delta state is concerned; there will be no more hostilities among the ethnic groups because the enemy is not within. The enemy is outside,” he stated.
The newly sworn-in state chairman, Professor Godwin Darah, earlier in a welcome address, posited that the inauguration of the state executives “consolidates the efforts and work” of the advocacy group, which began three years ago.
